The Thrifty Food Plan (TFP) is one of four

USDA The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is the federal executive department responsible for developing and executing federal laws related to farming, forestry, rural economic development, and food. It aims to meet the needs of com ...

-designed food plans specifying categories and amounts of foods to provide adequate nutrition. The other plans are known as the Low-Cost, Moderate-Cost, and Liberal food plans. Each plan specifies a number of pounds per week for each of 58 food categories for different age groups, for men, women, and children. The TFP is used as the basis for designing

Food Stamp Program In the United States, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as the Food Stamp Program, is a federal program that provides food-purchasing assistance for low- and no-income people. It is a federal aid program, ad ...

benefits. It is the cheapest food plan and is calculated monthly using data collected for the consumer price index (CPI). It is not the same as the food components of the CPI. The monthly cost of the TFP used for the Food Stamp Program represents a national average of expenditures (four-person household consisting of an adult couple and two school-age children) adjusted for other household sizes through the use of a formula reflecting

economies of scale In microeconomics, economies of scale are the cost advantages that enterprises obtain due to their scale of operation, and are typically measured by the amount of output produced per unit of time. A decrease in cost per unit of output enables ...

. For food stamp purposes, the TFP as priced each June sets maximum benefit levels for the fiscal year beginning the following October.

References

*{{CRS, article = Report for Congress: Agriculture: A Glossary of Terms, Programs, and Laws, 2005 Edition, url = https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metacrs7246/m1/1/high_res_d/97-905_2005Jun16.pdf Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Federal assistance in the United States {{US-gov-stub